Tuesday, March 26, 2013

A Day in Our LIfe

When I was new to this homeschooling business I enjoyed reading Day in Our Life type articles. ( Note I said articles not blog posts - when I started homeschooling we didn't have a computer at home much less Internet access - I'd hate to survive without them now). So I thought I'd write one. In some ways this is a typical day (as much as we have typical days!) and in some ways a very atypical day but this is how it panned out.

7am-8am All systems go this morning. I have to wake Miss 12 (and in doing so am reminded of one reason why I'm glad she doesn't go to school - over the past six months or so her body rhythms have really changed and she is no longer a morning person), eat breakfast and get us both out the door by 7:30ish. She has a private coaching session to help with her return to sport after her broken arm and her coach suggested this time. Am so glad we don't do this every day.

8-9am We arrive early - morning traffic wasn't as bad as I'd feared.The coach arrives shortly after us and before long she is warming up and stretching. I go upstairs to watch and do a bit of reading. The session turns out to be a good one since I can see her confidence starting to return (she broke her arm while training and is understandably apprehensive at getting back on the horse so to speak) and some of her moves are starting to come back which is good. On the down side I can see what a long way she has to go and how the lack of mobility in her arm is hindering her from doing some moves. We book another session for later in the week and luckily he offers us an afternoon slot.

9-10am Miss 12 chooses to do an exercise in her Latin programme (the decision to do work through a Latin course this year was hers). Then she asks me to read Great Expectations aloud. She uses the time to do her physio exercises and do some knitting. She's working on something that I think will turn out to be a lap blanket for snuggling under on the colder days that are fast approaching.

10-11am Next she opts to do maths to "get it out of the way". A maths programme is something we (especially her Dad) require - the actual programme is the one she picked from the choices we made available. I catch up on emails, start the laundry and help where needed. I also mark Mr 15's maths. He works independently and mainly from textbooks (a long story - which I might go into in a separate post if anyone is interested - but the decision was reached after discussions between him and us) with plenty of free time for pursuing his passion which seems to be technology, especially computers. Then they play a quick game of Ticket to Ride.

11-12 noon Game over and Miss 12 reads about knights and chivalry and then decided to write a summary. I encourage her to work on one piece of non-fiction writing each week but she chooses what to write about. I mark Mr 15's vocabulary exercises and he learns (hopefully) that it is a good idea to read all the instructions carefully before answering the questions! Miss 12 opts to do a couple of quick sentences from Michael Clay Thompson's Practice Voyageand adds to our giant wall map - she is colouring in a country and locating its capital as the mood strikes. Recently a friend of Mr 15's was in Sri Lanka - she loved the photos of him patting and riding elephants so she decided to colour Sri Lanka. We had a good discussion about why different reference books listed different cities as the capital.

12-1pm Miss 12 and Mr 15 make quesidillas for lunch. They read the newspaper (sometimes Miss 12 does some word puzzles in it - not sure if she did today or not) and then play another game of Ticket to Ride. Dh joins in. He works mostly from home at the moment and this is one of the advantages. More physio exercises for Miss 12. Mr 15 gets in some computer time.

1-2pm Miss 12 and I have some errands to run. Along the way we stop at a great bookstore so Miss 12 can choose a book. It is National Book Month here and as a promotion vouchers for $5 off any book have been distributed. She likes the look of three books and it takes her a while longer to finally pick just one. I then steer her towards a section of books on Anzac Day. It is next month and we don't really have any good books on the subject. Her choice here is much simpler. When we get back Mr 15 is busy with his science.

2-3pm Miss 12 goes to her room to read - Sense and Sensibility, Bird:The Definitive Visual Guide, The Doomsday Machine and an issue of Learning Through History. She always has several books on the go at once and prefers to read just a chapter or two of each at a time. Very different from how I like to read! Mr 15 goes next door to the neighbour's (an older man who has more tv channels than we do and who likes company) to watch sport. There is an international cricket match on and, surprisingly, we have a chance of winning. I go online to the library catalogue and order some books I spotted at the bookstore.

3-4pm I test Miss 12 on bird calls - she correctly gets 14 of the 15 I played. She tested me yesterday and I didn't do as well. She heads into the kitchen and starts work on the Goan Fish Curry she is cooking for tonight's dinner. Then she bakes Passionfruit Melting Moments. She mostly works alone but needs help with a couple of things - one she has never done before and another she can't manage because her arm is still not at full strength.

4-5pm I help Miss 12 with the dishes - breakfast and lunch as well as the cooking ones. Mr 15 is back from the neighbour's and gets ready to head out again. He volunteers once a week with the most junior section of our local Scout group. Once the dishes are done Miss 12 goes to the computer to work on some more stories.

5-6pm We prepare the vegetables, cook the rice and finish off the fish. Mr 15 arrives back, followed shortly thereafter by Mr 20 , a postgrad student. He has had a frustrating day due to problems with the university's supercomputer. No sign of Miss 18 - an undergrad student. It is the final week of the first quarter and she has a whole pile of assignments due plus two major tests so I think she is staying later to squeeze in a bit more work.

6-7pm We eat then Mr 20 heads out again. No scintillating dinner time conversation - the guys are too busy looking craning their necks to see the computer screen which is displaying a ball by ball commentary on the cricket match. (In case you care we were a ball away from a win - instead 5 days of play ended in a draw - cricket is a strange game!) Miss 12 and I play a game of Thebes and then she does another set of physio exercises. I spot Mr 15 with his Economics text.

7-8pm Mr 15, Dh and Miss 12 play another game of Ticket to Ride (we got this at the start of the year and I don't think there has been a day when someone hasn't played at least one game). She ices the biscuits she made earlier and puts some of the photos we collected on our errands in the frame she wants to hang in her room. Miss 18 arrives home looking rather tired and frazzled. To help her out Miss 12 and I volunteer to do her paper delivery round tomorrow.

8-9pm We play a game of Bohnanza, she copies out the fish curry recipe since she wants to make it again and then we settle down to watch Kingdom of Plants.

9-10pm Tv show over with a few phsyio exerciseS in the ad breaks then bed for Miss 12. I stay up a while longer to chat with Dh and Mr 20 when he gets in.